90 Wisconsin Ave Columbus, OH

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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoTy Wright | DISPATCHA worker grabs a ladder from a truck in order to board up the second-floor windows at 90 Wisconsin Ave., a house where two adults and a child perished in a house fire sparked by a space heater on Christmas Eve. Natural-gas service to the house had been shut off.

Since 1992, nearly 30 percent of children who have died in fatal fires in Columbus have perished
in a home in Franklinton.

“There’s a sound — a mother’s scream. It’s a terrible sound,” said one firefighter who worked at
the Franklinton fire station for two decades but didn’t want to be named. “The fire deaths have
been unbelievable.”

Vazirani said he is not to blame for the Christmas Eve fire that killed Jerrica Francisco, 22;
her son, Dashawn; and her boyfriend, Demetrius Chappel, 33. A space heater ignited a mattress. Gas
service had been shut off on Dec. 24 because of a leak inside the house.

“I told them I couldn’t do anything until Monday,” Vazirani said.

When he met the family in September, Vazirani said he immediately felt sorry for them because
Jerrica was using a wheelchair and they all were living in a car.

“They needed some help and I helped them. That’s the way God helps me,” he said.

But they never made a single rent payment, he said.

He said he doesn’t evict tenants until they are at least three months late.

Vazirani currently has seven eviction cases pending in Franklin County Municipal Court. One is
for the previous tenant at 90 Wisconsin Ave. He filed to evict her in August.

He also has two eviction cases pending against Barb Farrell. He evicted her from one of his
houses in May, then moved her into another. City inspectors ordered that house vacated on Dec. 16
because it had no heat.

Vazirani said the house lacked heat because Farrell failed to call the gas company to start
service when she moved in months ago.

Vazirani now faces charges in Franklin County Environmental Court because he failed to remove
Farrell from the house.

He said he is being unjustly vilified.

“I cannot sleep. My wife is scared. I have not done anything wrong.”

He turned and continued his walk through Franklinton.

A resident overheard his conversation with a
Dispatch reporter. “Did he tell you about the other house he owns on Wisconsin?”

That house caught fire two months ago. Tyvek wrap conceals the damage.

Marsha McClure bought her house down the block on Wisconsin Avenue 40 years ago and fell in love
with the charm of the neighborhood — including its brick street.